Buttermilk Banana Bread Pancakes

by Natalie

I love finding new ways to use up speckled bananas! The other day our toddler woke up and asked for pancakes, so I decided to mash up a few overly ripe bananas and incorporate them into our favorite buttermilk pancakes. The result: a super fluffy, sweet banana bread-like pancake. He loved them, I loved them and I think you will too!

Aside from my whole wheat banana pancakes, I’ve never really made plain ole banana pancakes. I’m not sure how I’ve managed that over the years, but I was pretty excited to come up with a recipe that my family would love. Since we can’t get enough of our favorite buttermilk pancakes, I thought I’d make a few adjustments to it and see what happened. I was pleasantly surprised by the results! The pancakes were incredibly light, fluffy and full of that sweet banana flavor… they tasted just like classic banana bread.

What makes these golden beauties so delicious is the combination of a few ingredients: real buttermilk, speckled bananas (overly ripe), and brown sugar. Do not substitute any of those ingredients or you’ll end up with dense, flavorless pancakes. Allowing the batter to rest for a few minutes before scooping and placing in a hot pan will help ensure that they have the perfect thickness and texture too.

Once they’re on the heat allow the batter to cook for about a minute (maybe two) on one side or until you start to see the bubbles on the surface pop. The pancake should rise and be at least 1/4″ in thickness. Flip them and let them cook until the center springs back a bit. The batter is relatively thick so you want to make sure it’s fully cooked throughout.

Pile them high and serve them up with sliced bananas, nuts and your choice of maple syrup, peanut butter, Nutella or whipped cream. No matter what you choose, you can’t go wrong! I hope you love these buttermilk banana bread pancakes as much as we did! Enjoy :)

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix until just combined, being sure to not overmix. Lumps make for fluffy pancakes! You may need to add a tablespoon or two of additional buttermilk to get the right consistency.

Allow the batter to rest for 5 minutes, meanwhile, place a large pan over medium heat and add ½ tbsp. of butter. Scoop the batter out using ⅓ measuring cup and pour into the center of the heated pan. Allow the pancakes to cook approximately 2 minutes or until you see small bubbles on the surface of the pancake. Flip, and cook for 1-2 additional minutes. The pancakes should be lightly golden brown in color.

Notes

*You CANNOT substitute the buttermilk for anything else in this recipe. The batter needs the thickness of real buttermilk, so please do not use milk and lemon juice!